The Londonderry sifter. (South Londonderry, Vt.) 1883-19??, 1887-01-20
REV. DIR. TALMAGE.
THE BROOKLYN DIvINIrs SUN.
DAY SERMON,
Subject; "These Flying Years"

TEXT: "HoW Old Art ThouY"-Genesis
Xvii. s.
The Egyptian capital was the focu, OF
the worlds wealth. In ships and barges
there had been brought from India, CHINA.
mon and frankincenSe and ivory and dia.
monds. From the north marble and iron.
FROM Syria, silks and plrples From Greece,
the finest horses in the world and the most
brilliant chariots. From all parts of the
earth, everything that could please the eye,
OF charm the ear, or crafty the taste. There
| were temples OF famir & red sandstone entered
BY gateways. guarded by pillars bewildering
| with hierogbyphics, and wound around by
| braIen serpents, and adorned with winged
creatures, their eyes and boaks and pinions
| eIttering with precious stones. There were
marble pillars blooming into white flower
beds. There wore stone pillars, the top burst
ing into the shape of the lotos in full bloom.
Along the avenues lined with sphinx and
fame and obelisk, Princes rode in gorgeous
! palankine, or were drawn in vehicles by snow
white horses golden bitted, six abreast, dash.
ing at full run. There were fountains from
stone -wreathed vases climbing the ladders
of the sun A bolt would shove and door
OF brass would open like a flash of the sun.
There were the odors of gardens all around
! about the palaces-odors climbing the
terraces, or dripping from the ar
bors, or burning their incense in the
EGYPTIAN noon. The floors of mosaic
We're written all over with the glories of
Pharaoh, written in letters of porphyry and
beryl and flame. There were ornaments
twisted out of the wood of tamarisk en-
| bossed with silver breaking into foam There
were fCctStools made out of single precious
stone. There were chairs spotted with the
sleek hide of leopards. There were beds
fashioned cut OF a crouchei lion in bronze.
There were sofas footed with the claws of
wild beasts and armed with the beak Of
birds. As on some summer day YOU stand
on the level Of the sea beach, and for miles in
| this direction and miles in that dire cticn
you seo the foam Of the breakers driven
shorenard. so it seemed as if the sea of
the worlds ponp and wealth in that
Egypt an capital were flung up in white
llsk 1T was to that splendid city, and to the
finest tui!dirg in that city, the ralace of
Pharaoh, that old Jacob, the shepherd far
mer, cane to find his son, joseph, who had
become Prime Minister and was living in one
of the royal apartments. There Pharaoh and
| Jacob met Dignity and rnsticity. The
grace illness OF tho alane and the plain man
ners of the field. And haraoh, the King, to
| put the o!d countryman at ease, and noticing
bow white his beard was and how feeble his
| limbs, looks familiarly in the face of the
aged, shepherd farmer and says: "How old
art thoI2"
Night tefore last, the gate of eternity
apened to let in amid the throng of departed
centuries the soul Of the dying year. Under
the twelfth stroke of the bra zen hammer of
the city clock tho old patriarch fell dead.
| What fortunate thing it is that we have
| tbs milestone on the road of life showing
how far we are getting on toward the end of
| tic Journey. and this morning it is appro-
pirate that loos into your faces as Pharaoh
J,n Fo of L. y.
the sare question: "H wv old art thoul"
People who are truthful about everything
| else will lie about their ages, So will put
| no one Of you under temptation. 1 want
this morning to apply a higher test
than the ordinary test. There is a
right way and wrong way of measuring a
door, measuring wall. measuring an arch,
measuring a tower, and there is right way
and there is wrong wayof measuring our
| earthly existence Therefore with this higher
meaning approach you to-day, and with all
the solemnity involved in the question l ask
you, "How old art thou" A great many
| people, notice, measure their existence by
was wished happy New Year, he replied:
| ~ hope it will be great deal happier than
the old year, for did not have one happy
moment in all the twelve months" But that
has not been the experience of most
of us. The most of us found out that though
tbs worli is s n blasted, it is bright and
beautiful and glorious world. There is no
war between the Gospel and merriment and
| festivity and innocent hilarty. l really
| think we do not thank God enough for
worl lily pleasures. Why do not yon 60 back
| further in recounting your mercies' Why
do not you go clear back to the time when
you lay an infant in yoar mothers arms,
looking up into the heaven of her smile!
Why do not you go back to the time when
you filled the house with uproar of
boisterous merriment-to the time when
with shout you pitched the ball on
the playground, to the time, the cold,
severe, winter night, when. muff1ed
up to the chin, on the skates you shot out
over the resonnding ice of the pond We're
you ever q boy We're you ever a girl
Have you thanked God for early blessings Z
Joy joy JOY From those times to this,
oh how many blessings have breathed up to
Us from the flowers, and shone down to us
from the stars, and shouted to US with the
voice of soaring bird. and tumbling cascade,
and booming sea, and thunders with hayonets
OF fire charging down the mountain side.
Joy ! 10y joy But while all this is true,
how unwse that man who measures his life
by worldly qualification. Life is not
game of chess, it is not the
foam of an ale pitcher, it is not the dregs of
wine cup 1t is not to be a scene of intoxi-
| cation and registering. l will tell YOU what
| life is. Life is the first step on ladder that
| mounts into tho skies, or the first step on
| road that plunges into horrible abyss It
is the keying up of harp or it is the forging
of chain. Standing here to-day in the first
Sabbath in the new year, mansions on one
side and dungeons on the other, songs on one
! side and groans on the other, Heaven on one
, side and hell on the other, put to YOU the
tremendous question of my text: "How old
art thoum Toward what destiny art thon
tending! How soon will you reach itl
But notice a great many. other people
measure their earthly existence by their sor-
| rows and their misfortunes. Through the
life OF many Of you the plow has gone
deep, turned up terrific furrow. How you
have been lied about, and maltreated and
slapped of importinence and pounded of
misfortune. In the brightest life there are
shadows In the smoothest road there are
thorns. Upon the most beautiful brood the
hawk pounces. John Milton. while he was
losing his eyesigbt heard that Salmatos was
fIad OF it. Pope, applauded for his poetry
al the world over, was SO annoyed at his
STOPPING shoulders that in order to avoid
the eyes of the public he had tunnel dug
through which he walkel day by day from
garden TO grotto and from grotto to garden
Sheridan, while his play was being enacted
IN Drury Lane Theatre, heard that his
enemy, Cumberland, was growing at it in
the stage box. Bishop Coopers lexicon
by termagant wi thrown into the fire.
Canno, the Spanish artist, was disguised
with tie cruciix the priest handed him, be-
ause it was not good specimen of sculp-
ture. And sometimes through the taste, and
sometimes through learned menace, and
somet.mes through the persecution of tn
world, and sometimes through physical dis
tresses, aye, in ten thousand ways, there com
annoyances and sorrows and misfortune
and tragedies. But that is very un
wise man. that is very unwis
woman, who measures life by misfortune ant
trial, for where there is one stalk of night
shade there are fifty harebels and mari
colds; where there is one cloud thunder
charged there are whole focks of cloud
straying across the hills of Heaven, all tht
giories of land and sea asleep in their bosom.
Because you lose your child do you forget til
five or ten or fifteen years when she came
every night for kiss, all the tones of YOU
heart responding to the sorrow of her voice
or the touch Of her soft hand Because in th:
eurot lydon of a great panic your fortune wen
down, have You forgotten sl the years il
whi the comforts ant; The Injuries ard tn,
e, travagances of life were showere on you
| Iathweyl Oh, that Is an unwisc man, tina
Is an unfair man, that is an ungTats!Gl man
that IS an unphilosophic man, ana more thal
I IL hnf =